Afternoon Drive: Porsche Love (29 Photos)

For the past 80 years, Porsche has sat atop the automotive food chain as one of the most recognizable and respected brands in the world. Long associated with the men we all wish we could be (think McQueen in LeMans, Cruise in Risky Business and James Dean in, well, real life), the Porsche image has gone through a bit of a redux lately. In fact, some purists have even declared the era of Porsche as the ultimate man’s car to be dead.

So, is Porsche, in its 60th year in the United States, still a manly car? When you consider the entire fleet, from your basic Boxster to your kid-carrying Cayenne to the nefarious 911 Turbo, does Porsche still inspire lust among women, create jealousy among friends and challenge the driver to push the limits on the track? Is the brand still worthy of the badge Dr. Porsche bestowed on it all those years ago?

First we have to understand what makes a car manly. It is the perfect algorithm of power, price, design, challenge in driving and of course the ability to inspire lust in those around you.

If James Dean and Paul Newman were still around today, you can bet they’d be shuttling their grandkids around in a Panamera Turbo, and they’d look damn cool doing it.

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